Speaking outside the royal courts of justice, Ms Church denied being motivated by money.

"I wanted to bring the individuals responsible to court and make them explain why they did this to me and my family," she said.

"In my opinion, they are not truly sorry - they are only sorry they got caught."

A statement read out in high court this morning stated: "Charlotte was... regularly harassed and even placed under surveillance by the News of the World and those paid by them.

"They followed the every move of a teenage girl. We will never of course now know the full extent of what they did, because as we are aware, much of the data is now destroyed."

Ms Church, now 26, was the subject of intense and scrutiny when she was just 16 years old.

Her mother was also pursued "at her lowest ebb", the statement confirmed. She had been "coerced" into an interview about a recent attempted suicide after journalists had discovered her medical history after hacking voicemails.